Next Season: Spring 2008 baka-bridged edition.

* Updated with 20 Mensou no Musume

It’s that time of the year again, as new animé gets released in Japan and I desperately try to watch as little of it as possible. I think many Animé fans have a process of selecting or whittling down the torrid of new series. My method goes along the line of this:

1. Download first eps. of anyhing that Looks, Sounds or Tastes (!?) good.
2. Discard anything that is less animated than a postcard.
3. Drop anything that is still rubbish after 2-3 episodes
4. ???
5. Profit!

I found a handy translated preview collage on Ii-chan to help me select animé that taste good. I was going to post previews of next season’s animé, however, at one point after staring at this list containing no less than 39 Animé, I realised that not even Kami-sama has enough time to write thorough previews for every item in the next season, let alone watch them all.

I, myself have went through process No.1 as above and compiled next season’s animé into a 4 column list:

Hell Yeah! I’ll watch it.

Alison & Lillia – A love story against the backdrop of a post-industrial FANTASY world.Code Geass R2 – Second Season of Clamp inspired MECH show in Prime Time slot: Hell yeah! (Pizza Hut are making me watch it!)Itazura na Kiss – Scatterbrain Kotoko in epic Shojo love comedy spanning 9 years.

Probably, maybe, preview.

Junjō Romantica – KimiKiss but YAOI!KanonKon – MOE Harem, this time with a fox-deity (Horo?!). (youtube)Nabari no Ou – NINJAs! I’m sold just by that word.20 (Juuni) Mensou no Musme – Instant promotion due to Hirano Aya as Chiko (who looks like Itsuragi Noe?!)Vampire Knight – Gothic Shojo with romance and an Uguu~ Loligoth VAMPIRE!

I’ll have a lookies, maybe it’d be good?

Blassreiter – ACTION/HORROR about something to do with devils.Da Capo Second Season – Da Capo 1 Season One was full of Pseudo-Siscon goodness. I don’t think I can put in words what I feel they did to it in D.C:SS and in D.C.II. Since they spent the whole of D.C.II messing about with alternate route characters, maybe I hope, they might focus on the main characters in D.C.II:SSHimisu: Top Secret – Psycobabble from legendary studio Madhouse (CCS, Denno Coil, Paranoia Agent).Monochrome Factor – Shounen about fighting shadow monsters, here by merit of GENCO (Shigofumi, Onigai Twins).Real Drive – (Senno Chosashitsu) Production I.G. does ghost in the shell again!Soul Eater – Shounen from bones (Darker than Black, Ouran High).Special A. – Shojo with lots of fighting from Gonzo.Telepathy Shojo Ran – Outside chanceToshokan Sensō – It’s 1964 Thought police with the seiyuu of Yoko/kana (Gurren lagan/ Minami ke). No thanks. playing an interesting charactor who looks like a tomboy, interesting…Wagaya no Oinarisama – Shonen light novel series adapted by Zexcs (Ichigo Mashmallow, Mai Hime) featuring fox diety (another one?) with both sexes.

You can’t be serious!

Amatsuki – Samurai time travellingBLUE DRAGON Shichi no Ryu – NO! This is made for little boysBus Gamer – The manga is supposed to be good but the production companies behind this have little experience. There’s only 3 episodes to boot.Chi’s Sweet Home – It’s about cats… ^_^Crystal blaze – It’s made by Studio Fantasia…. Oh… dear….Gyahu Manga Biyori (3rd Season) – 5 min short animationGolgo 13 – I don’t care if it’s a long running manga, it is a James Bond rip!Ikuze Gen-san – 9 mins short animationKaiba – Arty SCIENCE FICTION LOVE story by legendary Madhouse. (Dailymotion)Kirarin Revolution Season 3 – MAGICAL Kiddie Shojo, reminds me of full moon.Kamen no Maid Guy – It’s got ‘maid guy’ in the title! Geezzz…Kyou Kara Maoh! R (3rd Season) – Male Harem FIGHTING animé, do not want!Kurenai – (means Crimson) A young man protects a little ojou-sama (Hayate!?)but looks like a lolikon show.Macross Frontier – Another edition of the 25 year old MECH drama.Net Ghost PiPoPa – Looks like a Pokémon ripoff! O_ONeo Angelique Abyss – Shojo, it looks rubbish!Sugar Bunnies – NO! This is made for little girls!The Tower of Druaga: the Aegis of Uruk – ADVENTURE RPG like Dragon Quest with different names… again.To Love-Ru – Magical Girlfriend HAREM, where the heroine is called ‘Lala’. (-_-)Uchi no Sanshimai – OMG! Aliens!xxxHolic:Kei – I’d watch Tsubasa specials but I’ve never got into xxx.Yu Gi Oh! 5D’s – I never caught on.Zettai Karen Children – This translates as Absolutely Lovely Children! (o_-)

Analysis:

I’m likely to be watching about 7 or 8 animé next season which is similar to the number over the winter period (6). The bar chart shows I am inevitably ignoring 3/5ths of the season and watching probably about a quarter.

One of the things I’ve noticed this season is the relatively high number of Shojo programs. Beyond the obvious YAOI in Junjo Romantica, Monochrome Factor sounds like it’ll have YAOI undertones. With Romatic affairs in Neo Angelique Abyss, Vampire Knight, Itazura na Kiss and Special A, plus the more obvious clamp-influenced xxxHolic and Code Geass.

Overall, it is a very busy season. I’m very much looking forward to Code Geass and Lillian. Other then those I give a few more ep.1s a go and maybe uncover some Gems along the way. I hope Vampire Knight doesn’t become vampire high and Junjo Romantica actually reaches the standard of kimikiss.

[…] animé and this is quite time consuming. But since I have yet to plough through 3 out of 8 of my top lists, not to mention many that should have been on it, I probably won’t pick for another week or […]